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An anonymous reader writes: High-speed internet has become an everyday tool for most people, and cord-cutters have dramatically slowed the growth of cable TV, so this had to happen eventually: broadband internet subscribers now outnumber cable TV subscribers among the top cable providers in the U.S. According to a new report, these providers account for 49,915,000 broadband subscribers, edging out the number of cable subscribers by about 5,000. As Re/code's Peter Kafka notes, this means that for better or worse, the cable guys are now the internet guys. Kafka says their future is "selling you access to data pipes, and pay TV will be one of the things you use those pipes for."

The internet has long since made cable and over-the-air broadcasts redundant avenues of data transmission, as the cord cutters know.

Can we please kill cable and it's dumb "channels" yet? Can we do away with traditional radio stations and their paid-for playlists?

I'm for keeping important over-the-air broadcasting such as weather and news via both TV and radio transmissions in case of emergencies, but regular tv and radio just aren't needed anymore. With the internet, you can search and pick exactly what you want, when you want it.

Do we want to listen to a morning/talk show, my favorite music, an audiobook, a 'podcast' or some other audio form of entertainment on my drive to or from work? Let US choose.

Do we want to watch a traditional tv show, a movie, a user uploaded video, a video-webcast, or some other form of visual entertainment media at home or wherever we have a TV or computer in front of us? Let US choose.

We the people no longer want or need your schedules or playlists. We can make our own.

Damn the cable and traditional radio/tv systems for continuing to try and hold back progress by refusing to upgrade speeds, trying to maintain too much control, and screwing with our laws to favor their outdated practices. It's coming anyway, but it could've been here a whole lot sooner if it wasn't for these clowns.

It was clear from the content that the author of the parent comment had been reading some very one-sided reports of what went on in St. Louis, and my guess is that it got downrated because of this. But I wasn't the one who downrated it, so I can only guess..

That perhaps is one of the great failings of modern media and even the internet. No matter what it is that you believe, you can find a news outlet or a website which validates your belief no matter how preposterous or ridiculous the rest of society might happen find it. For a lot of people there is a tendency to turn only to sources of information that reinforce those beliefs, you might never hear or understand the arguments against it. Carl Sagan once popularized the saying that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. And yet there are many in our society that choose to believe things that are unsupported by any evidence only because the person holding the beliefs finds them comforting in some way.